• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.5 no.2_3
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• pp.235-246
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• 2005

Local buckling is a major consideration in the design of thin-walled cold-formed steel sections. The main effect of local buckling in plate elements under longitudinal compressive stresses is to cause a redistribution of the stresses in which the greatest portion of the load is carried near the supporting edges of the plate junctions. The redistribution produces increased stresses near the plate junctions and high bending stresses as a result of plate flexure, leading to ultimate loads below the squash load of the section. In singly symmetric cross-sections, the redistribution of longitudinal stress caused by local buckling also produces a shift of the line of action of internal force (shift of effective centroid). The fundamentally different effects of local buckling on the behaviour of pin-ended and fixed-ended singly symmetric columns lead to inconsistencies in traditional design approaches. The paper describes local buckling and shift of effective centroid of thin-walled cold-formed steel channel columns. Tests of channel columns have been described. The experimental local buckling loads were compared with the theoretical local buckling loads obtained using an elastic finite strip buckling analysis. The shift of the effective centroid was also compared with the shift predicted using the Australian/New Zealand and American specifications for cold-formed steel structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.333-345
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• 2020

In the past, many efficient profiles have been developed for cold-formed steel (CFS) members by judicious intermediate stiffening of the cross-sections, and they have shown improved structural performance over conventional CFS sections. Most of this research work was based on numerical modelling, thus lacking any experimental evidence of the efficiency of these sections. To fulfill this requirement, experimental studies were conducted in this study, on efficient intermediately stiffened CFS sections in flexure, which will result in easy and simple fabrication. Two series of built-up sections, open sections (OS) and box sections (BS), were fabricated and tested under four-point loading with same cross-sectional area. Test strengths, modes of failure, deformed shapes, load vs. mid-span displacements and geometric imperfections were measured and reported. The design strengths were quantified using North American Standards and Indian Standards for cold-formed steel structures. This study confirmed that efficient profiling of CFS sections can improve both the strength and stiffness performance by up to 90%. Closed sections showed better strength performance whereas open sections showed better stiffness performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.271-286
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• 2017

The use of Hollow Structural Sections (HSS) provides an alternative for steel buildings in seismic zones, with the advantage over WF columns that the HSS columns have similar resistance along both axes and enhanced performance under flexure, compression and torsion with respect to other columns sections. The HSS columns have shown satisfactory performance under seismic loads, such as observed in buildings with steel moment frames in the Honshu earthquake (2011). The purpose of this research is to propose a new moment connection, EP-HSS ("End-plate to Hollow Structural Section"), using a wide flange beam and HSS column where the end plate falls outside the range of prequalification established in the ANSI/AISC 358-10 Specification, as an alternative to the traditional configuration of steel moment frames established in current codes. The connection was researched through analytical, numerical (FEM), and experimental studies. The results showed that the EP-HSS allowed the development of inelastic action on the beam only, avoiding stress concentrations in the column and developing significant energy dissipation. The experiments followed the qualification protocols established in the ANSI/AISC 341-10 Specification satisfying the required performance for highly ductile connections in seismic zones, thereby ensuring satisfactory performance under seismic actions without brittle failure mechanisms.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.473-487
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• 2012

An experimental study was performed to investigate the seismic performance of steel reinforced concrete (SRC) special-shaped columns. For this purpose, 17 steel reinforced concrete special-shaped column specimens under low-cyclic reversed load were tested, load process and failure patterns of the specimens with different steel reinforcement were observed. The test results showed that the failure patterns of these columns include shear-diagonal compression failure, shear-bond failure, shear-flexure failure and flexural failure. The failure mechanisms and characteristics of SRC special-shaped columns were also analyzed. For different SRC special-shaped columns, based on the failure characteristics and mechanism observed from the test, formulas for calculating ultimate shear capacity in shear-diagonal compression failure and shear-bond failure under horizontal axis and oblique load were derived. The calculated results were compared with the test results. Both the theoretical analysis and the experimental results showed that, the shear capacity of T, L shaped columns under oblique load are larger than that under horizontal axis load, whereas the shear capacity of +-shaped columns under oblique load are less than that under horizontal axis load.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.136-141
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• 2015

The stitching process has been widely utilized for the improvement of through-thickness property of the conventional laminated composites. This paper reports the effects of stitching on the flexural and interlaminar shear properties of multi-axial warp knitted (MWK) composites in order to identify the mechanical property improvements. In order to minimize the geometric uncertainties associated with the stacking pattern of fabrics, the regular lay-up was considered in the examination of the stitching effect. The key parameters are as follows: the stitch spacings, the stitching types, the stitching location, and the location of compression fixture nose. These parameters have little effect on the flexural and interlaminar shear properties, except for the case of stitching location. However, the geometry variations caused by the stitching resulted in minor changes to the mechanical properties consistently. Stitching on the $0^{\circ}$ fibers showed the lowest flexural strength and modulus (12% reduction for both properties). The stitch spacing of 5 mm resulted in 8% reduction for the case of interlaminar strength compared with that of 10 mm spacing.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.135-160
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• 2007

Recently, CFT column has been well-studied and reported on, because a CFT column has certain superior structural properties as well as good productivity, execution efficiency, and improved rigidity over existing columns. However, CFT column still has problems clearing the capacity evaluation between its steel tube member and high-strength concrete materials. Also, research on concrete has examined numerical values for high-strength concrete filled steel square tube columns (HCFT) to explain transformation performance (M-${\phi}$) when a short-column receives equal flexure-moment from axial stress. Moment-curvature formulas are proposed for HCFT columns based on analytic assumption described in this paper. This study investigated structural properties (capacity, curvature), through a series of experiments for HCFT with key parameters, such as strength of concrete mixed design (58.8 MPa), width-thickness ratio (D/t), buckling length to sectional width ratio (Lk/D) and concrete types (Zeolite, Fly-ash, Silica-fume) under eccentric loads. A comparative analysis executed for the AISC-LRFD, AIJ and Takanori Sato, etc. Design formulas to estimate the axial load (N)-moment (M)-curvature (${\phi}$) are proposed for HCFT columns based on tests results described in this paper.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1581-1598
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• 2015

A concentric braced steel frame is a very efficient structural system because it requires relatively smaller amount of materials to resist lateral forces. However, primarily developed as a structural system to resist wind loads based on an assumption that the structure behaves elastically, a concentric braced frame possibly experiences the deterioration in energy dissipation after brace buckling and the brittle failure of braces and connections when earthquake loads cause inelastic behavior. Consequently, plastic deformation is concentrated in the floor where brace buckling occurs first, which can lead to the rupture of the structure. This study suggests reinforcing H-shaped braces with non-welded cold-formed stiffeners to restrain flexure and buckling and resist tensile force and compressive force equally. Weak-axis reinforcing members (2 pieces) developed from those suggested in previous studies (4 pieces) were used to reinforce the H-shaped braces in an inverted V-type braced frame. Monotonic loading tests, finite element analysis and cyclic loading tests were carried out to evaluate the structural performance of the reinforced braces and frames. The reinforced braces satisfied the AISC requirement. The reinforcement suggested in this study is expected to prevent the rupture of beams caused by the unbalanced resistance of the braces.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.103-110
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• 2009

Since the mechanical properties of cement-based materials are time-dependent due to the prolonged cement hydration process, those of fiber reinforced concrete(FRC) may also be time-dependent. Toughness is one of important properties of FRC. Therefore, it should be investigated toughness development of FRCs with curing ages to fully understand the time-dependent characteristics of FRCs. To this end, the effect of curing ages on flexural toughness development of steel fiber reinforced concrete is studied. Three point bending test with notched beam specimen was adapted for this study. Hooked-end steel fiber(DRAMIX 40/30) was used as a fiber ingredient to investigate w/c ratio and fiber volume fraction effect on toughness development during curing. Three different water-cement ratios(0.44, 0.5 and 0.6) and fiber volume fractions(0%, 0.5% and 1%) were used as influence factors. Each mixture specimens were tested at five different ages, 0.5, 1, 3, 7 and 28 days. The study shows that flexure toughness development with age is quite different than other concrete material properties such as compressive strength. The study also shows that the toughness development trend correlates more closely to water/cement ratio than to fiber volume fraction.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.93-104
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• 2020

Basalt fiber is an eco-friendly fiber and comparatively newer to the world of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. A limited number of studies have been reported in the literature on the strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP). The present experimental work explores the feasibility of using the BFRP strips for shear strengthening of the RC beams. The strengthening schemes include full wrap and U-wrap. A simple mechanical anchorage scheme has been introduced to prevent the debonding of U-wrap as well as to utilize the full capacity of the BFRP composite. The effect of varying shear span-to-effective depth (a/d) ratio on the behavior of shear deficient RC beams strengthened with BFRP strips under different schemes is examined. The RC beams were tested under a four-point loading system. The study finds that the beams strengthened with and without BFRP strips fails in shear for a/d ratio 2.5 and the enhancement of the shear capacity of strengthened beams ranges from 5% to 20%. However, the strengthened beams fail in flexure, and the control beam fails in shear for a higher a/d ratio, i.e., 3.5. The experimental results of the present study have been compared with the analytical study and found that the latter gives conservative results.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.615-626
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• 2010

The discrete-layer model is proposed to analyze the edge-effect problem of laminates under extension and flexure. Based on three-dimensional elasticity theory, the displacement fields of each layer in a laminate have been treated discretely in terms of three displacement components across the thickness. The displacement fields at bottom and top surfaces within a layer are approximated by two-dimensional shape functions. Then two surfaces are connected by one-dimensional high order shape functions. Thus the p-convergent refinement on approximated one- and two-dimensional shape functions can be implemented independently of each other. The quality of present model is mostly determined by polynomial degrees of shape functions for given displacement fields. For nodal modes with physical meaning, the linear Lagrangian polynomials are considered. Additional modes without physical meaning, which are created by increasing nodeless degrees of shape functions, are derived from integrals of Legendre polynomials which have an orthogonality property. Also, it is assumed that mapping functions are linear in the light of shape of laminated plates. The results obtained by this proposed model are compared with those available in literatures. Especially, three-dimensional out-of-plane stresses in the interior and near the free edges are evaluated and convergence performance of the present model is established with the stress results.